“Many retailers in California have
been found selling expired products like baby formula and that’s just
unacceptable,” said Assemblymember Lieu. “This legislation will protect the
health and safety of consumers, especially infants and the elderly, from sales
of these products beyond their expiration dates.”

Cash-strapped Los Angeles Unified School District has canceled most summer classes in hopes of saving $34 million.

Los Angeles International Airport police hauled away a woman Thursday who tried to give President Obama a letter and wouldn’t leave the area near Air Force One. The self-proclaimed “Catholic priestess” wanted the president to denounce same-sex marriage.

We have more details on that off-duty Gardena police officer who shot and killed a would-be robber at a Norm’s in Bellflower early Thursday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved spending $5 million to continue studying a South Bay rail extension.

Remember that bar in Carson that got busted a few months ago for having illegal strippers? Well, police shut it down completely Thursday. Make sure you adjust your weekend plans accordingly.

State Sen. Jenny Oropezatoday yesterday voted against confirming Doug Drummond to the state’s parole board due to anti-gay remarks he made in 1993.

Oropeza and Drummond were serving together on the Long Beach City Council at the time. Drummond gave a speech at the Eagle Forum in which he said he supported Fidel Castro’s quarantine of gays to counter the AIDS crisis, and said this:

“Do you want to know why I don’t worry about gayactivity? I’m gonna give you a clue. So far in San Francisco, over 10,000 have died. In Long Beach, over 1,000 have
died.”

Drummond apologized shortly after the remarks were disclosed, and supported the council motion to censure him. He has since sought to make amends by marching in gay rights parades, and he apologized again today to the Senate Rules Committee.

But that didn’t cut it for Oropeza, who joined a 3-2 vote to reject Drummond’s appointment to the parole board:

State Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), who once
served with Drummond on the City Council, questioned him at length, suggesting
that his efforts at reconciliation with the gay community coincided with his
unsuccessful campaigns for Long Beach mayor.

“You made a judgment as an
elected official to defame a group of people,” she told Drummond. “How would we
feel if in some of these quotes, we took out ‘homosexual’ and inserted ‘Mexican
American’ or ‘African American’ or ‘Jew’? These are serious matters, sir, and
they are ones you can’t brush under the rug.”

The parole board position pays $112,000 a year. Though the Rules Committee voted it down, the appointment does go to the full Senate for a floor vote.

Rancho Palos Verdes city leaders agreed early today to provide the $8 million that developers of a luxury resort said they need to open up on time next week.

DaVita is bailing from El Segundo for cheaper pastures, the operator of kidney dialysis centers nationwide announced today.

Locals react to the state Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8, the ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

Narbonne High School students Tuesday mourned the death of Dannie Farber Jr. as detectives worked to figure out why a gunman would kill the football standout as he ate at a Compton restaurant over the weekend.

Newman, a Boston Terrier and the last link to a Torrance family killed two years ago in a freak car crash, is now missing.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu is floating a bill that would allow transgender people to change the sex on their birth certificates.

Softball teams from Banning and San Pedro High Schools face off today for the L.A. City Section title.

Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, is a candidate for attorney general, so his positions on Prop. 8 are likely to be closely scrutinized by activists and primary voters. Here’s what he said on Twitter today:

Very proud of my friend Justice Carlos Moreno for dissenting from the CA Supreme Court opinion on Prop 8 today.

Moreno was considered a long-shot candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court appointment that today went to Sonia Sotomayor. His blistering dissent today would certainly have complicated his confirmation battle:

The rule the majority crafts today not only allows same-sex couples to be stripped of the right to marry that this court recognized in the Marriage Cases, it places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities.

One Torrance woman is relieved to learn she is likely not at fault for her two sons’ autism diagnosis after participating in a study that has indicated that environmental factors do not contribute to the disease.

South Bay health organizations are bracing themselves for more funding cuts in the fallout of the state ballot propositions’ failure last week.

Fort MacArthur in San Pedro got its own dog cemetery for military pups that lost their lives for their country. Check out pictures of the dedication ceremony.

Former Torrance resident Philip Wilmot, a World War II pilot who bombed Japan, is featured in a documentary.